Shaping the Future
ATP supports the aid project “Smiling Gecko”
With this year's Christmas donation, we are taking the planning of an organic food production facility for the exceptional cluster project 'Smiling Gecko' in Cambodia to the next level. We are donating the preliminary integrated design planning and the know-how transfer for the further on-site planning to ensure the sustainability of our assistance.
Review and Outlook
In 2012, Hannes Schmid encounters a slum girl – her father had disfigured her with a blowtorch and sold her as a begging doll. The tragedy of this story, which is far from an isolated case, prompts the Swiss photo artist to found Smiling Gecko. He buys an approximately 9-hectare property in the north of Phnom Penh to provide impoverished families from the city with a new livelihood in the countryside.
Today, about 300 families at Smiling Gecko and from the surrounding area find a secure income in the biologically managed agriculture on the now 120-hectare area. The overall project is based on many pillars – one of them being the chicken and pig breeding managed according to the latest agricultural principles. Each family receives chicks and piglets for their own breeding. Only a small part of them is used for self-sufficiency, the larger part is sold in the capital. With the money earned from this, they pay the rent for their home and the education of their children in the project's own school.
Since mid-August, "Smiling Gecko" has been operating two Organic Farmhouse Shops in Phnom Penh. These serve as additional sales outlets and a stable source of income. "Organic meat is highly sought after in the capital. The demand is high, so now a professional butchery is needed to process the meat of sustainably bred chickens, pigs, and later fish profitably and according to the highest quality and hygiene standards," said ATP architect Georg Lanza.
Taking responsibility and sharing knowledge
In a one-week retreat, together with representatives from the local planning department, we want to create the integral preliminary design planning," explained Lanza, who leads the project for ATP with passion and dedication. "The goal is to pass on the know-how contained in the plans." He is convinced that a simple, physical handover of the plans would not do justice to the project. "That's why the project is so unique. Money alone only makes people locally dependent. Our help is sustainable because we share our knowledge," he describes the core of the objective.
The simultaneous block seminar is scheduled to take place in spring 2020, so that detailed planning can start on-site. "Ideally, the foundation will be completed before the winter monsoon sets in," said Lanza about the rough schedule, which is subordinate to the available funds. "If everything goes well, the butchery could already be operational by early 2022."
